In 1901, Joliet Junior College was founded and became the nation’s first public community college. During the first six decades of its existence, JJC shared building space with Joliet Township High School, which today is the location for the Central Campus of the Township’s High Schools. During Joliet Junior College’s existence in Downtown Joliet, its transition to temporary buildings on recently acquired farm land and the building of the campus on what would become Houbolt Road, there was always an almanac documenting the events that happened during the past school year. These yearbooks are not only a glimpse into the rich past of a national educational landmark, but an exhibit of change – a transformation that not only happened to the students within JJC, but the physical existence of JJC itself.
The first years of the yearbooks are shared between the students of Joliet Township High School and Joliet Junior College. Typically, the high school students would occupy the first portion of the book, leaving the latter half for the JJC students. “The J,” as it was known, is still the name of the yearbook for Joliet Central students today. In 1945, the Joliet Junior College students began printing their own yearbook. “The JJC Diary,” was composed in a similar manner to that of “The J,” but included more abstract student writings on the state of life after finishing at Joliet Junior College. This feeling of undefined opportunities that the students held would be a common theme throughout all the yearbooks.
In 1947, “The JJC Diary” changed to “The Shield;” a name which would stay with the JJC yearbook until it ceased publication in 1977. The Shield grew with the population of the school. As more students began to enroll at Joliet Junior College, the bindings became larger. Starting in 1948 with eighty-six pages, The Shield ended in 1977 with over one-hundred and fifty pages – doubled in size with only twenty-nine years between the first and last copy. In those years, we see the College grow from a section within a high school, to its own massive campus. We see changes in the faces – students and faculty, changes in the buildings, and changes in fashion. But from 1923 to 1977, this document shows one constant: Within the temporal environment of education, there will always be dedication to emphasizing the importance of exploration and the pursuit of knowledge.
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